


The Gift - An Alternate TROS Ending

by enloeddmedia



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Ending, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Lightsabers, Mother-Son Relationship, Planet Ahch-To (Star Wars), Seriously I cannot stress this enough, a mother's love, this is what leia really would have done, what was LFL thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26897251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enloeddmedia/pseuds/enloeddmedia
Summary: I was asked in the RFR Book Club 20 Questions how I would have ended Rise of Skywalker. While I didn't sit and piece together all the complexities that would be involved, I knew one thing had to happen and how. The rest is just how I would have written it. We start off at the kiss that gripped the hearts of all those who loved Ben and Rey...
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 35
Kudos: 59
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics, The Rise of Skywalker: Fix-It Fic Edition





	The Gift - An Alternate TROS Ending

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short little fic, again, prompted by the admins at the Reylo Fic Recs group on Facebook during the Book Club reading of "The Galaxy Needs a Nerd." I decided to post it on here too (it does have a few tweaks as I went over the story later, so if you have already read it, there will probably be a few minor changes) just so those who weren't in the group or available for the reading could see it too. It's not my usual high-emotion/high-adventure tale, but it means something deeply to me as a mom.
> 
> No real triggers, but there are deaths that were already in the movie (this WILL have a happy ending of course!) so just be aware.

A kiss, for she had found him at last. Ben Solo, no longer hidden beneath the hard exterior of Kylo Ren, free and powerful, shining with a light that was his very own.

Just when she had almost given herself completely to the Force, he had pulled her back, through the gateway, right into his arms.

She could still feel his energy swirling inside of her, a perfect balance of Light and Dark, just as he was always meant to be.

Rey parted from the heaven of his lips and gazed at the soft being that had always been there, too afraid to let himself show. And for the first time, Rey saw a smile upon Ben’s face, bright and majestic, so full of the real and true light inside of his heart.

Moments later, it faded.

Her heart pounded in terror as he collapsed. Panic gripped her as she touched his face. Ice met her fingertips, his body losing form to a growing and dreadful translucence. Rey could barely feel him in the Force, only what was inside of her still. She was losing him.

 _No! NO! This can’t be happening!_ Not when she had just gotten him, finally embraced the other half of her soul. Finally got to love him and touch him and just be with him after all this time.

And then she heard it, somewhere in the depth of the Force.

_Ben…_

Leia’s voice. A mother reaching out to her son, her boy, the precious light in her heart she had been estranged from for too long.

Translucence turned solid once more. Ben gasped as his eyes opened, his broad, beautiful chest rising and falling where only moments earlier there had been silence. Rey let out a sobbing cry of joy and pulled him back up, back into her arms. His big brown eyes regarded her, so sweet and angelic, like the little boy he once was, as if in that moment he was still in his mother’s embrace.

He looked around. “Mom?”

And then, on the Force: _I will always be with you._

Tears streamed down his cheeks, and then he smiled, once again, that beautiful, heavenly smile. His gaze turned back to Rey, and she knew in that moment she had truly been gifted for her sacrifice, having the only thing she could ever want brought back to her.

On Ajan Kloss, as the shroud on Leia’s body flattened to the bed where her body had once been, Maz nodded with a knowing smile. Leia had given her all to save her son.

#

Ben clasped his right hand with Rey’s left, kyber crystal between their palms. It was time to heal the legacy and create a new one. The lightsaber that passed from Anakin through Luke and now to Ben would now be purified and blessed with the union of the dyad.

He clasped his left hand with Rey’s right, the kyber crystal from his mother’s lightsaber between them. Leia had taken Rey under her wing, trained her, and with the last bit of her essence gave a gift both to Rey and Ben—his life. Rey wanted to honor Leia’s memory and carry her energy into the future.

Standing on the tiles of the Prime Jedi mosaic in the temple on Ach-to, the power of their dyad flowed through them, hand to hand, swirling as Light drove Darkness drove Light in an endless circle. The kyber crystals glowed bright blue in their hands. Then the colors shifted. Ben’s took on a blue-violet—Darkness in the Light. Rey’s took on a golden hue—Light in the Darkness. The crystals sung with their unified energy, healed of a troubled past, infused with the balanced Force to carry on into the future.

Ben placed his crystal into the lightsaber hilt he adapted to look more like his old one. Rey placed hers into a hilt she modified from Leia’s to include the staff that had been her only companion and guardian in her time as a scavenger. Together, they stepped out toward the ledge overlooking the ocean.

Ben’s black cloak whipped in the breeze, revealing the blend of gray robes beneath. Rey’s lovely gray scarves curled around her body, bearing her own mix of white, gray, and black. Two as one, balanced in the Force, they ignited their lightsabers, gold and blue-violet humming to life. They clashed their weapons together for old time’s sake, reveling in the colors of their new life. The dyad drew close until the beams shone on one another’s faces, reminiscent of their first battle on Starkiller Base.

Rey grinned. “Is that offer still open to show me the ways of the Force?”

Ben smiled. “You don’t need me to.” He clicked off his lightsaber.

Rey followed suit. “Know what I do need?”

“What’s that?”

She grasped his shirt and pulled him close. “You.”

Before the crashing waves, Ben pulled her into a kiss to rival any kisses that came before yet was only a first step for the many that were soon to come.

#

Rey led the way onto the Millennium Falcon. Poe, sitting next to Finn in the common area, rolled his eyes. “Finally. Can we get out of here? These porgs are driving me nuts.” He shoved yet another one off the Dejarik table to a resounding squawk.

Rose reached over and smacked him on the arm. “Don’t hurt those poor little things! They’re so cute.”

“Ow! Well then you corral them.”

Rose scooped the dejected critter into her arms. “Gladly.”

Rey smiled at her friends’ banter and sighed in satisfaction. “Our work here is done. But the real work starts now.”

“First order of business,” Finn said, “find me a lightsaber.”

“Here.” Ben floated a hilt over to Finn.

Finn grasped it and looked up, suspicious. “What’s this?”

“Something my uncle left behind.”

Finn flicked the switch and marveled at the green light that burst onto the hilt.

“Now all you need is some training.”

Finn narrowed his eyes. “From you?”

Rey put her fists on her hips. “Problem?”

Finn turned off the lightsaber and lifted his hands in a placating manner. “We’re all trying to get used to him. Give us time.”

“Yeah,” Poe said, “not all of us believe in love at first fight.”

Rey rolled her eyes. “Oh ha ha. Let’s just go.”

Poe stood. “Great, I’ll take us up.”

“Like hell you will,” Ben said with a biting stare. “This is my father’s ship.”

Rey huffed. “You two aren’t the only ones who can fly, you know.”

Ben pointed to himself. “I’m flying!”

Poe made a mad dash for the cockpit. “Not if I get there first.”

Ben charged after him and lifted his hand, ready to make this race a short one, when Chewbacca stomped down the corridor, bellowing at them.

Ben stopped in his tracks beside Poe. “Looks like Uncle Chewy determines the winner.”

“Me!” Rey shouted and dashed past the three of them.

Rey punched them into hyperspace, bright blue filling the cabin. She sat back in the pilot’s chair, grateful for her newfound family, her new adventures, and most importantly, for her life.

A gift from the man who placed his large hands upon her shoulders, the folds of his cloak falling around her. She turned up to look at that handsome face, so free of the burdens and pain of before, ready to fight for the ideals his mother stood for, to atone for his past actions by liberating those who were crushed beneath the system he served for too long.

Bathing in the glimmering blue light of their future together, she stood and leapt into his embrace with a kiss to seal the glory of their union, a gift from the mother who loved him enough to give her life so he could have a future.

The Skywalker legacy, first circle complete, ready for a new beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> As a mom with a son, the one thing that I called bullpoo on was that Leia would have just allowed her son to die in any way shape or form. She stopped her Jedi training because she sensed his death at its end, so we KNOW she wanted him to live. And if her body was to remain for all that time and then suddenly disappear, you can't tell me it wasn't to give whatever she had left to give her son a chance at LIFE! This is so deeply instinctive and inherent, I can't believe it played out the way it did (clearly the writer did NOT understand the mother/child or even mother/son dynamic.) 
> 
> Whether the rest of my tale after that moment would have made it to canon, meh, who knows, this is just my fanciful way of ending things. But above all, I cannot accept that Leia would give her life just for her son to die. That's why, when I was asked by the book club how I would end the movie, this one thing HAD to be in it. 
> 
> I also wanted both of them to be Gray Jedi after all is said and done, embracing both sides of themselves. But I had to have Ben keep the black cloak because OMG he's so damn HOT in a black cloak!
> 
> Also, for some reason I always feel like Finn should have a green lightsaber, and it just occurred to me that if they were on Ahch-To, there might just be one available...
> 
> Follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/shannon_enloe) @shannon_enloe and [ Facebook](https://fb.me/enloeddmedia) @enloeddmedia and [Tumblr](https://enloeddmedia.tumblr.com/) enloeddmedia


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